Another thing I'm lucky not to have

The fact that I am essentially dirt poor white trash means that my family lacks many of the things others take for granted.  We don't lack any real necessities, mind, but things that have somehow become perceived as necessities.  I am convinced, for the most part, that I am better off without them.

Sour grapes? Perhaps, but let me give you an example as an explanation.

One thing I am particularly glad not to have in my house is a game platform.  There is no Xbox, no Ps, none of that in my house.  Of all the things I don't have, I am gladdest I don't have one of those. 

One of the problems is is not that I would hate having the thing in the house, but that I would love having the thing in my house.  One of the guys I work with sent me along some trailers for a few games coming out soon, and the quality of them was incredible, about as far above my old Atari as a supersonic jet fighter is above the Wright Flyer.  A lot of the guys at work talk about playing the games, and not the young guys either- guys in the forties or fifties who spend hours upon hours on the games.  I believe, on the one hand, that there is something... pathetic, for lack of a better word, of a forty year old man spending hours playing a video game, but watching those trailers, I could see the appeal.  Two things stood out.  First, the female characters are hawt. Second, these games would be as addictive as crack.  I would be like the other guys, and spend hours upon hours playing the games, gaining the pseudo awards they hand out for achieving a new level, when in reality the only thing I would have to show for my time is a pair of stiff thumbs.  And lusting after a bunch of pixels is just plain sad.

I have other hobbies, which actually produce results.  I also spend time with my family.  The video games would cut into that,  Playing these games would not be killing time as much as massacring time, raping its women, selling its children into slavery and sowing its fields with salt that its once verdant fields will be black and barren ever after.

Part of me would love to have a game system and a few titles. That's why I am better off without them.